I take comfort that aging happens to everybody. It's part of life. Aging offers great lessons in dignity, since the indignity wins in the end. Yes, it bothers me when I have lines or puffiness or droops. But it connects me with the human race. Like weather bringing people together, aging brings people together.

I don't lie. I would never stuff my bra because it's going to come off and the truth is going to be revealed. I don't like that padding. I try to be completely - if not brutally - honest.

Blessings come in disguise. And challenges can be a blessing.

I think a lot of the time, the studio system is so compelled to kowtow to its fear that women are not going to be found sympathetic. It just sort of euthanizes any hope of more diverse examples of the emotional realities of people. Representing my gender, I think, "Well, I have those emotions, why don't those ever get brought to the screen so I can feel recognized?"

I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter.

I do feel that if it's not on the page, there's no hope of it getting to the stage. You really can't take a cat and turn it into a dog, or try and get lemons off an apple tree, or what have you. Sometimes there's this real naïveté that people possess, where they want you to infuse a scene with a certain quality, and it's like an apology. "I read the script, didn't you? What's the agenda here?"

You see the movie with the music and the editing and all the parts that you weren't there for when it was being filmed, and you really appreciate all the names that are scrolling by. You realize that you accomplished so much.